Cliff Racer
The party races the thaum-seekers. Synopsis In the middle of the Datura Desert, Fenn yells at Juniper to wake up as a thaum-seeker bounds towards the party. The creatures are capable of great speed when they have time to accelerate. The thaum-seeker reaches the party, and Juniper, armed only with a sword, rolls a as he swings it, losing two of his fingers to the creature's claws. Fenn spends a charge of her war bow to kill it. Now that the use of magic has alerted more thaum-seekers to the party's position, Amaryllis orders Juniper to heal her with bone magic while Fenn scrambles up the cliffside. Fenn finds a ledge and readies more arrows while Amaryllis and Juniper ascend the cliff. Juniper tells Fenn to shoot at the next opportunity, hoping for a level up from Fenn's kills. He sees two , but no level up is forthcoming. A thaum-seeker, having climbed the cliff after Juniper, almost knocks him off with a swipe at his foot. Juniper uses blood magic to launch himself up the cliff until he reaches Fenn and Amaryllis, who had reached the top just before and are waiting to catch him. Juniper watches hundreds of thaum-seekers close in. A quick check of his vital stats shows him at health and blood. Juniper shouts that the party has to get behind the wards of Caer Laga, but Amaryllis informs him that they already are. Juniper watches as the flesh and bones in an attacking thaum-seeker's body are annihilated, getting another notification of a , and the rest of the thaum-seekers are intelligent enough to halt their advances. Amaryllis prepares to climb the walls of Caer Laga to one of the many slit-shaped windows in order to get inside. Fenn asks about Juniper's incoming level up failing to materialise, which leads to a short conversation about game design. They conclude that doing things to avoid challenges, such as relying on Fenn's bow to kill strong enemies, would provide a smaller amount of experience points towards level ups. Amaryllis begins climbing, and Juniper marvels at how good she is at it. She executes a complicated maneuver with the void rifle to open the window, disappearing inside for about a half hour. Meanwhile, Fenn bets Juniper at one hundred to one odds that Amaryllis won't come back, telling him that she intends to collect on the bet even if they die and go to the same hell. Amaryllis, however, does return, and she intends to use a glove with extra-dimensional storage capabilities to bring Fenn and Juniper up into the fortress. Juniper is not keen on the plan, but the only other object of immediate use that Amaryllis found was a jar containing fairies that can be consumed for healing or sustenance. Juniper makes a joke about starving that was popular with his D&D group on Earth, but neither Fenn nor Amaryllis respond to it. Fenn and Juniper get into Amaryllis's glove, holding their breath while Amaryllis climbs up again. Juniper waits until his lungs feel like they are on fire before Amaryllis releases the two of them inside Caer Laga. Upon release, Juniper feels the golden glow of a as he completes the quest. Featured characters *Juniper Smith *Amaryllis Penndraig *Fenn Greenglass Quotes “But if you were making a game where people can get more powerful by killing goblins, then --” “Don’t speak of goblins like that.” :—'Juniper' puts his foot in his mouth while talking race relations with Amaryllis. “We might end up in the same hell. There’s no death clause on this bet, Joon. If we starve to death out here, or if the ludicrous wards up and kill us, then I’m a-coming for you to make you pay up.” :—'Fenn' seals the bet with Juniper. “I found the jar too. It was sealed. There was a warning on it. All our food is at the bottom of a cliff that’s still covered in magical beasts who would like nothing better than to kill us. They seem to be content to wait. If I’d found any rope, I’d be throwing that down to you now. The faster we can get inside, the sooner we can split up and search for something that will let us extend the time it takes for us to starve.” “You had me at starve.” :—'Amaryllis' walks right into Juniper's D&D group's in-joke, but neither she nor Fenn give the traditional followup of ‘but starve was the last thing I said’. “Ya know, elves can hold their breath for an hour. Guess I didn’t get my dad’s lungs. Also, let’s never travel by glove again.” :—'Fenn' didn't like traveling by glove either. Notes Real-world references *The thaum-seekers remind Juniper of the Gruffalo song.